A California Based Charity Creates Kits to Make Dining out with A Child with Autism a Meltdown-free Experience

ANOVA, a charity that works with individuals with autism and their families and is based out of California, teamed up with Mary’s Pizza Shack to help bring stress-free dining experiences to families of children with autism and sensory processing disorder. They are pursuing this by creating “Sensory Friendly Kits,” which help kids with autism and sensory processing disorder eat out without feeling overwhelmed by their surroundings. The kits are located in all 11 of the Mary’s Pizza Shack locations across Sonoma County, California. The kits are available upon request and are free to use while dining. The kits include noise reduction earmuffs, a 3 pound weighted lap pad, a mini zone chart, and several different sensory toys. This is a pilot program and ANOVA and Mary’s Pizza Shack hope to take customer feedback to improve the program and spread it to more businesses and counties. If you live near a Mary’s Pizza Shack, ANOVA encourages you to try one of the kits and to help contribute to developing a program that could allow thousands of families to experience the joy of eating out.